Chicopee man indicted in federal court for failure to register as sex offender after years of dodging authorites

A section from a document outlining state regulations for sex offender registration.

SPRINGFIELD -- A painter from Chicopee who had been working jobs at homes, a day care center and a church in two states was charged in federal court with failure to register as a sex offender, linked to a 1998 case in which he fondled a young girl.

The charge was brought under the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, designed to tighten the leash on sex offenders across the country and ratchet up the penalties if they fail to comply. The federal statute has been used infrequently in Springfield but has been used widely across the country, according to officials.

James L. Roberson, arrested in his painter’s clothes after authorities tracked him to his brother’s house on Williams Street in Chicopee in May, had been eluding investigators since he failed to register in the late 1990s, court records state.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge at his arraignment before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Kenneth P. Neiman.

Investigators say Roberson, 47, received three years probation for molesting the girl but almost immediately flouted court mandates that he receive sex offender treatment and stay away from his victim. In the ensuing years, Roberson has traveled the globe including being deported from England and acquiring a wife in Nicaragua while dodging authorities.

Court records show Roberson was stopped several times by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Services coming into the country following air travel.

In May 2011, 12 years after Roberson had failed to register as a sex offender: “Roberson had just arrived from Nicaragua and was trying to board a flight to Vermont from New York City. He said he had been living in Nicaragua for the last 18 months and was trying to get paperwork in order to bring his wife to the U.S.,” according to a complaint drafted by a member of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Roberson was not arrested. The following year, he was stopped once again arriving at the Fort Lauderdale, Fla. airport by customs officials and told them he was still traveling back and forth to Nicaragua to visit his wife, but had a painting business in Vermont, where his stepmother lived. Court records state Roberson took more than 25 international flights between 2003 to 2012.

Roberson ultimately was arrested on May 18 while renting a bedroom at his brother’s home, which he kept locked, his brother’s girlfriend told investigators.

Investigators said in court filings that Roberson has provided false social security numbers to two employers and has worked at homes on Arcadia Street in Springfield, Newbury Street in Chicopee, a Square One day care in Springfield and a Congregational church in Burlington, Vt. and at Champlain College in the same town.

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act was signed on the 25th anniversary of the abduction of the child from a shopping mall in Florida in 1981. The boy was found murdered 16 days later but the perpetrator was not charged until 2008.

Roberson faces a 10-year maximum prison sentence and is due back in court Aug. 23. He is being held without the right to bail.